Forced to downsize :( (1 Viewer)

Hello All:

This forum has been invaluable to me over the past few years. With your assistance, I have been able to put together a great 7.1 home theater that exceed all of my expectations. Now I'm moving into a small apt (you can probably fill in the blanks...)and am wondering about smaller display devices.

I am leaving a Toshiba 55" widescreen RPTV behind, and would like opinions on what a good choice might be for significantly smaller.

First, is there a minimum size below which the image becomes a joke? How is 27"? The Sharp AQUOS 27" Widescreen seems OK. Am I in the ball park? For a TV of this size, is LCD definitely the way to go? Any advantages to plasma?

As always, your thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Nick B

How far from the display will you be sitting?

Just as close as I want. It is such a small space. I am envisioning moveable seating. Up close for decent video and then moved away for life in general.

Good advice, Stephen. Thank you. I thought LCD was quite expensive. I don't know if this matters or not, but I do not plan on watching broadcast/cable TV. This will be a DVD playing set-up only. I want the best picutre quality I can get, without going past the point of diminishing returns financially. Why do people go with LCD over tube? Picture quality? Space savings? Thank you again for your time and advice.

Nick B

Nick,

Having spent the past 3 years in apartments after downsizing(recently bought another house) I feel your pain. I went from a 48" RPTV to a 27" CRT. As the room it was in was small and I sat maybe 5' from the screen, this was ok but I longed for a 32"-36" screen; the latter may have been too big at that distance but it sure would have made me feel better about losing the larger display. If it were me, I would stick to a CRT set. I like seeing everything I expect to see and not seeing what I don't.

I think LCD and plasma make even less sense as you get smaller, compared to CRTs since the annoyances of size, weight, and geometry problems decrease greatly with smaller size.

There is no bad size for a TV. Just find the size that suits your situation.

If you want to save money and space, and won't watch HD material, I suggest a good analog 27" set with the 16:9 squeeze feature. It will be perfect for DVDs, can easily be re-purposed for a bedroom or workshop TV if you upsize later, and will be relatively inexpensive.

CRT it is, gentlemen. Thank you for your sage advice. Dave, I wonder what you meant by not watching HD material. Do you mean broadcasts? I do want to take advantage of the highest resolution for DVD watching. I guess I was under the assumption that HD sets made for better, crisper pictures even when watching DVDs. Thanks again.

Nick B

I am also in the same situation although I am not moving. I have a 47" rear-projection TV (burn-in: grrr) and need to downsize (and move the TV to a new location) but the flat-panel LCDs (esp. Sharp's Aquos) are too expensive. I live on a 2nd floor and a tube TV is too heavy and too thick and I didn't want anything less than 30". There isn't much selection.

However, I found a widescreen SamSung CRT TV that is 30" but 1/3 thinner than regular CRTs! I don't know how old this model is but it fits my criteria.

SlimFit TV
TX-R3079WH
Built-in HD tuner
www.samsung.com

Samsung introduces the new SlimFit(TM) television to the market. At only two-thirds the depth of a conventional flat screen CRT, TX-R3079WH delivers the high brightness, contrast and outstanding picture performance that you demand. This new SlimFit TV not only has a sleek space-saving design but its HDTV built-in tuner, progressive scan and 3:2 pull down deliver a crisp, flicker-free picture. You'll also find a full compliment of connections, 2 auto sensing wideband component inputs, an HDMI input, and 20 watt built-in speakers with BBE audio technology. SlimFit(TM) from Samsung - the final evolution of CRT TV.

Check out the demo on the home page of the SlimFit page. It weighs about 120-130lbs. and the advertised price is $999.

However, I don't know about the quality and performance of SamSung products or how their customer/technical service is.

I am hoping for more sizes but I am also hoping that other companies follow if the demand is there. This is the perfect configuration for me and I think I can live with 30" from 47".

Yes, I meant HDTV or HD movies from your PC, not DVDs or regular television.

If you're not going to watch any source with higher quality than DVDs, and want to save money and space, a moderately sized CRT with component inputs and a 16:9 mode is a great option.

Thanks for your advice. Right now, I am leaning toward a 34" Widesceen CRT, possibly Sony or Toshiba. I was wondering about HDMI, instead of component, as both the TV and the DVD player I am considering have HDMI. Will there be any improvement over component when it comes to DVDs?

Nick B

Actually, I recommend against that, simply because 30"+ CRTs are tremendously heavy and expensive for their size. They can also suffer geometry problems. (I have a 36" 4:3 Wega. Good TV, but I wouldn't buy it again for those reasons.)

Is your TV downsizing a matter of cost or size?

Others may disagree , but I think if you're looking to spend $1500 or more on a 34" or larger TV, you'd be better off getting a 45" - 50" widescreen RPTV.

I know this is kind of going the other way with it but is there any chance you could get a PJ? There is nothing smaller then a pj and a screen. If you can control the light it might be worth considering. Even if your are only 8 feet away from the screen you could still do a 55" diag screen.

I would see if a local dealer has a screenplay 4805 and just see if they will let you try it out.

Thanks again, especially for helping me think outside of the box. My downsizing is 75% space, and 25% cost. I am in an apt, so making any sort of physical modifications is untennable. The space is quite small. I am probably pushing it with a 34", but after leaving a 55", I really did not want to go smaller.

As for expense, my thinking has been that, compared to LCD and Plasma, CRT gives the best value for picture quality. I'll deal with the weight (and so will the friends that help me move!).

I will not be in this apt forever. In about one year, I will be looking for a house again. And I WILL have a dedicated room for HT. So this paricular display device may be doing bedroom/study/computer monitor duty.

Please keep the ideas coming. I always like challenging my assumptions. The end result will be video bliss. Thank you again.

Nick B

And you will have to move the CRT behemoth again. And then you will buy a new large screen TV, and move the 300 lb CRT again. And you will lose all your friends.

My 36" Wega weighs over 250 lbs. It took 3 people to move it into the apartment when I bought it. We used 5 people to move it to my new house. And there it sits, never to be moved again. One day, I'll sell the house, TV included.

A widescreen Wega will look great, no doubt. But if you're only "downsized" for a year, buy a cheap 27" analog set, enjoy your DVDs, and save your cash for the house, and make moving even easier. That's my suggestion.

Or, buy a PJ, and set it on your coffee table, watching the picture on the wall. It will cost less than the Sony, give you a big picture, and transition well to your future house.

I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about a PJ. Just for the sake of argument, how much would a decent PJ run me?

N

The InFocus Home ScreenPlay 4805 is considered to be a great budget pj along with the Optoma H31 both can be had for arround $1300.

That is tempting, because it is right in the ballpark for what I would be paying for a CRT. I guess I have to do some more homework. How realistic is it to just project an image on a wall? Plus, I am assuming that once I am finished living in my sardine can, these PJs can be used as part of a quality HT set-up. Is this correct? Thanks.

Nick B

Perfectly. You won't get the ideal picture - color balance will be affected by wall color, amoung other things. But the wall is just a screen without borders.

The more practical concerns are hardware placement, cabling and TV tuner connection.

DaveF, you have succeeded in spinning me around in a completely different direction. Before you post, I would never have dreamt of getting a projector. Now after lurking in the AVS Projectors under $3500 forum, it is starting to sound like the most sensible approach, both for short term, as well as long term.

If you will oblige me, I have a couple of really newbie projector questions, as well as some questions about your last post.

AVS has really good things to say about both the InFocus Home ScreenPlay 4805 as well as the Optoma H31, so you hit two homeruns right there. Both project in 480, so how much definition will I lose over a CRT? Remember, this is just going to be a DVD machine.

That being the case, I am assuming I can just run a cable between my player and the projector. Is this so? So would this not negate your cabling and TV tuner connection concerns?

If you know, what is the minimum distance I can have the projector from the wall/screen for a quality image?

Finally, once I am out of my phone booth, how well will either of these projectors compare to my PQ standard, which is my old (sob) Toshiba 55" HD RPTV? When I turned on that set for the first time, I felt like Fred Flintstone firing up a Porche 911.

I cannot thank you enough for your sage advice.

Nick B